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Linda McCartney
Linda Louise McCartney (neé Eastman) was a photographer, activist and musician. She was Paul McCartney's first wife. They got married in 1969 and lasted until her death, on 1998. Linda was born in New York in September 24, 1941. She was the second child of Lee Eastman, a wealthy lawyer, and his wife Louise Lindner. She also had an older brother and two younger sisters. Unfortunately, her mother died in 1962. Later, Paul McCartney wanted his father-in-law, Lee Eastman, to represent the Beatles and their company, Apple, but this was stopped by the other three Beatles, who chose Allen Klein instead. Linda studied on the University of Arizona for a Fine art major and Photography. It was there where she met who would become her first husband, Joseph Melvin Jr. They got married in 1962 and their daughter Heather was born that same year. Curiously, they got married on June 18, on Paul's 22th birthday. Suddenly they discovered their marriage wasn't working and divorced on 1965. Melvin committed suicide on his house in Tucson, Arizona, in 2000. On these years, Linda worked for many magazines as a photographer and it was when she was spotted to work as the official photographer of the Fimore East Concert Hall, where she got some of the most famous pictures of famous artists of that time, such as Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin and Jefferson Airplane. On 1967, she was asked to travel to London to take photographs of all the "Swinging London" scene. It was there where she met Paul at the Bang O'Nails club while she was with some friends on a performance of Georgie Fame. She got to show her pictures to Brian Epstein, who liked her work and invited her to the launch party of the band's "Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band" at Epstein's. Paul and Linda lost clue about each other for a whole year and met again in New York City where Lennon and McCartney went to announce the creation of Apple Corps. A few months later, and totally in love, Linda flew to London. She wouldn't come back to live in US for a long time. After six months living together and discovering Linda was pregnant, they got married in March 12, 1969. Fans gathered to cry after the marriage of the "only single Beatle". On August 28, Linda gave birth to their first child together, Mary Anna McCartney, named after Paul's mother. They had other two children, Stella Nina McCartney (born on September 13, 1971 and named after her two great-grandmothers) and James Louis McCartney (born on September 12, 1977 and named after Paul's father, who died a few months prior to his birth). Paul also adopted Linda's daughter, Heather, as his own. Although Linda had some uncredited musical contributions with the Beatles (like the chorus in "Birthday") she had never consider herself as a musician. But after Stella's birth on 1971, Paul convinced her to learn how to play the keyboard and join his upcoming band, which he eventually called "Wings". Together with other musicians, such Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English they became a successful band in the 70's and the first years of the 80's. In 1977, Wings recorded a single called "Seaside Woman" under the name of Suzy and the Red Stripes. She also recorded an album "Wide Praire", which was rehearsed after her death on 1998. Linda was also recognized as an activist, fighting for animal rights. She and Paul became vegetarian on the early 1970's and raised their children like that. With the quote "I don't eat anything that has a face" in mind, she wrote various vegetarian cooking books, such as "Linda's Kitchen" and "Simple and Inspiring Recipes for Meatless Meals". Their vegetarianism became so popular that they were the guest stars at "The Simpsons" on the episode "Lisa The Vegetarian". Another episode "Trash Titans" was dedicated to her after her death. She and Paul also supported many organizations that defended these causes, the main one was PETA, which Paul stills support. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with breast cancer on 1995. Immediately, she started a treatment using new drugs to help on fighting against her disease. It was later said that the worst part about this for her was knowing that as her medication was practically new, it had to be tested on animals. Even after all of these, cancer ended up spreading to her liver and made her condition worse. She finally died surrounded by her family on McCartney's ranch in Arizona, on April 17, 1998. She was cremated and her ashes were took to Sussex, England, where they had a farm and where she spent most of her life with Paul.